Not so useless anymore
by KawaiiScorpio
Summary: What happens when Kakashi discovers that Sakura isn't a helpless little genin and doesn't need protecting anymore? And what happens when Sakura no longer starts seeing Kakashi as a sensei, but maybe as something more? Oneshot KakaSaku pairing.


**Not so useless anymore**.

Summary: What happens when Kakashi discovers that Sakura isn't a helpless little genin and doesn't need protecting anymore? And what happens when Sakura no longer starts seeing Kakashi as a sensei, but maybe as something more? Oneshot Kaka/Saku pairing.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters. Only the story belongs to me. Muah. 

It was a bright and sunny September afternoon in Konoha. Birds were singing, childern were laughing and playing without worry, and a nice cool breeze was forever sweeping through the village and making the trees dance as if listening to a silent song. Kakashi Hatake and Sakura Haruno were currently exiting the village gates, having been selected for a C rank mission

The mission itself was simple enough, take a secret scroll to the Hidden Waterfall Village to help strengthen the newly formed bond between the two country's, make nice with the locals, then depart for home. Kakashi and Sakura really didn't see much of a need for both of them going, but weren't about to go against the Hokage's orders, and that brings us to where we are now.

Sakura, having been upgraded to a jounin a couple months prior, slightly picked up her pace as to keep up with her former sensei. He might be a few years older than her, in fact, almost double her age, but you would never guess it by looking at him. Instead of looking like he was in his late thirty's, he looked more like he was in his early twenties. Or at least, that's how he looked in her eyes. She had heard some of the village gossip's happen to mention him one time, and they remarked about how they all thought he looked like he was in his mid fifties.

Sakura stifled a giggle at the memory, she didn't think she could explain the laughter to him with a straight face. Shifting her eyes to the side to look at him, she had to wonder how in the world they could have thought he was so old. He didn't look it at all, well, with what parts of his face were showing, he didn't look that old anyway. His body definatley didn't look old, as she recalled the one day she was graced with the honor of one of the rare times Kakashi chose to train without his shirt on.

Startled at the thought, she tore her eyes from the man next to her, and focused them on the path ahead. _' What are you thinking?! He's your former sensei! Not only is he out of your league, but he's out of your age group!' _she mentally berated herself, suddenly feeling incredibly stupid. _' He might be older than you, but his body sure doesn't look it. Cha! Look at those rippling muscles! ' _Inner Sakura cheered, pumping an enthusiastic fist in the air.

"Baka ie!" Sakura shouted out loud, unaware that she had actually voiced her opinion instead of only thinking it in her head. "Hmm? You say something, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, his lone eye gazing quizically at her. Sakura blinked and then blushed, quickly shaking her head. "Iie, nothing Kakashi-sensei" she mumbled. He sighed, "How many times must I ask you not to call me 'sensei' anymore? Besides the fact that we're both jounin now, it makes me feel old."

Sakura giggled, pretty much seeing the grin beneath his mask. Her embarassment forgotten, she decided to tease him a little. Afterall, he never passed up an opportunity to do so to her. "Well, Kakashi-sensei," she drawled out the last word, loving how his eye twitched slightly, "you ARE an older man, and there's no shame in being old. You should be proud of your age, it shows you have experience." Kakashi didn't answer, but merely grunted in reply, making Sakura giggle again.

He knew that she didn't really mean anything by it, it was just playful banter. He would tease her about her forehead now and then, and in return, she would tease him about his age. He was more sensitive than a woman when it came to his age, and she found it amusing to no end. Men usually weren't the ones to worry so much about their age, at least until their fifties, whereas women would worry and fret over their age as early as in their teens. So to see the stereotype get switched over to a male, and to her ex-sensei, of all people, was highly amusing in her eyes.

They fell into a comfortable silence after that, concentrating on the mission at hand. Keeping a steady pace, they were about another day and a half away from the village, only stopping once every few hours to regain some stamina. They had just started to move again, hopping up into the treetops and gliding from branch to branch, when all of the sudden, a shuriken whipped through the tree's and straight for them

"Sakura! Watch out!" Kakashi hollered, seeing the glint of sunlight off one of the sharp edges of the shuriken at the last moment, and watched as if in slow motion as it headed towards Sakura and impaled her right square in the chest. Kakashi was sure that the image of his only female student being impaled by a shuriken was a sight that would live on in his memories for the rest of his life, and for what seemed like an eternity, he was rendered helpless from sheer shock.

His one visible eye widened substantially when Sakura disappeared in a puff of smoke, and a log took her place, the shuriken protruding from the center of the trunk. Outwardly, you would have a hard time telling that he had been affected by the thought of Sakura being K.I.A. But inwardly, he was in turmoil. He chalked it up to her being his only female student, and him being her senior and the fact that he should have been paying more attention.

He was so dazed, that he barley had time to move out of a crashing tree's path made by Sakura's chakra packed punch. Finally brought back to reality, he watched with slight amazement as Sakura's fist made contact with the ground and exploded from the sheer impact. No matter how many times he saw that, it never ceased to amaze him that the once weakest member of Team Seven, was now one of the most powerful.

He kept watching as she made short work of the couple of 'wannabe ninja's ' as she called them, then sprinted over to him with worried eyes. "Kakashi, are you alright? Did you get hit?" she asked hurriedly, already her hands moving to his vest and starting to undo the buttons.

It took Kakashi a moment to realize what she was doing, and put a hand over hers to stop her from stripping him further. "Iie, daijobu. I just wanted to see how well you could handle them on your own." Sakura blushed a bit for jumping the gun like that, and deep down, she was also blushing from the feeling of his hand on hers. _'Sensei, Sakura! He's your sensei!" "Ex-sensei, actually" _Inner Sakura corrected, making her blush harder and swear darkly at herself.

"Yah, well, I'm a jounin, too. I can handle myself just fine, thank you" she huffed, more out of embarrassment than anything, stalking off to hide her growing blush. Unbeknown to Sakura, Kakashi was also fighting down a blush from the contact, though he couldn't blame it on her being his only female student this time. This fact bothered him more than he like to admit, he was starting to see her in a whole new light, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not.

It was much more simple to think of her only as his former student who used to harbour intense feelings for Sasuke. Instead, now he started to see her as a capable, and rather attractive, young woman. He shook his head, turning to catch up with Sakura. "This is going to be a long trip" he sighed.

"Thank you very much for delivering this scroll" the Lord of the Hidden Waterfall Village said, bowing slightly in thanks to the two Hidden Leaf shinobi as they made their exit into the cool evening air. As soon as they were out of ear shot, Sakura let out a sigh. "I hate being around nobles, they always make me feel inferior."

Kakashi glanced at her from the corner of his eye, silently agreeing with her, but couldn't help wondering why she would feel so inferior to them. He had seen many nobel women in his lifetime, but not one of them could stand a chance against Sakura's beauty.

Sakura's beauty was pure, her face wasn't covered under two pounds of gaudy make-up, and her hair wasn't restrained in some horrific style that made it look as if she had been struck by a lightening bolt a couple hundred times. No, Sakura's beauty was the complete opposite.

Her face was never disgraced with make-up, her angelic features were allowed to shine purley. Her lustrious and glossy pink hair, which she had allowed to grown back out, flowed freely over the almost sinful curves of her back to her hips. Sakura never wore anything too revealing, but she wasn't afraid to flaunt what she had. And in Kakashi's opinion, she had alot of things to flaunt.

Her body was curvacious and slender, her hips swaying seductivley as she walked. Her breasts were neither small nor overly large, just inbetween to make her all the more perfect. The last thing he examined were her lips, her thick, full, pouty lips. They looked to be smooth and silky to him, and for a moment his mind wondered vaguley what they would taste like. If they would taste of some exotic fruit, or if it would be like no other taste known to man, and so therefore could not be given a name.

Upon realizing that the thoughts he was thinking should never have been thought, he mentally slapped himself and forced himself to catch the tail-end of Sakura's sentence so that he may be able to give a witty reply, as per usual. "So, what do you think, Kakashi?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to look at him innocently, which he found to be absolutley adorable.

_'Iie, I cannot have these thoughts nor feelings, it's not right. She was a student of mine. And even if she wasn't, what would the villagers say if they found out? What would Tsunade-sama do if she found out? No no no! This cannot happen. I cannot allow this to take another step forward. This ends now before it even begins!'_

"I think, Sakura, that it is way past your bedtime. You should get some rest before we depart tomarrow morning" he said, a bit rougher then he intended, though. But he bit the inside of his cheek and willed himself to stay silent, even as she looked at him with those big emerald orbs of hers, shining slightly with unshed tears.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei, wakarimasu. Oyasumi nasi." she said, almost bitterly, before turning on her heel and briskly walking away towards a hotel. A different one, he noted, from the one he had checked them in at upon arrival. He hung his head lowly, heaving a sigh. "It is for the best, Sakura. Someday you will understand, and thank me for it." he told himself. But in the deep dark regions of his heart, the part that was locked away behind chains and seals, he knew that the feelings he had were not ones a student and sensei usually shared. He was in love with Sakura.

"The nerve of that man!" Sakura huffed, pacing back and fourth in her hotel room. "I am a qualified jounin, I can take him on equally as a ninja, and he has the audacity to treat me like a child!." She would have given anything to be able to punch something, but not only would that put the newly formed bonds with the two villages in jeopardy, she really didn't have enough money to pay for any damages.

So she continued to stomp back and fourth in her room, rambling on and on about how stupid men could be, and if she could get ahold of him she'd wring his scrawny neck. Twenty minutes later, she flung herself backwards onto her bed, huffing. Why did it hurt so much for him to treat her like a child?

Dignity, was the first thing that came to her mind. She was a damn good ninja, and a top medic-nin, second only to Tsunade-sama herself! Who the hell was he to treat her as if she was still a genin? She deserved some respect God damnit!

She turned over and buried her head into her soft pillow, clutching it tightly as her thoughts kept raging on inside her head. She knew she was angry, hell, she was downright furious. But there was another emotion all tangled and weaved into the anger, and it took her a few minutes to calm down and figure out what it was she was feeling.

Sadness. She was sad. Sad that Kakashi still treated her like a child? She didn't understand at first, but as she sat and contemplated things, it started to get a bit clearer to her. "Oh dear God" she whispered, "I'm in love with Kakashi..."

She abruptly stood up, only to sit back down, then stand up once more. Both hands came up to cup her face, "What do I do? I can't be in love with Kakashi! He's my sensei!!"

_'I already told you, he's your EX-sensei. Meaning he is no longer your sensei'_ Inner Sakura said with a huff, apparently peev'd about having to repeat herself. She did have a point, but still...her and Kakashi? Together? She just couldn't wrap her mind around the concept.

"No! No way! Putting aside the fact that he's my EX-sensei, he's got to be at least twice my age! I mean, not that that kind of thing bothers me, but, what will the people of the village think?"

_'So, you're going to chicken out of possibly finding true love, all because of what you think people might think of you two together? C'mon now, you're not in highschool, Sakura. What does anything anybody say matter if you love each other? Shouldn't the love between you two be enough?'_

Sakura blinked, clearly surprised by both the inspiring words her inner self had proclaimed, and the lack of ranting and 'cha's'. She was right, and Sakura couldn't deny it. So what if people gossiped about it? What other people thought should have nothing to do with the way she lived her life. She lived by her own rules, not by what everybody else thought and did.

With these thoughts in mind, she marched over to her door, intent on going to find Kakashi and straighten things out once and for all. But as her hand went to grab the doorknob, it twisted and opened, revealing Kakashi in her doorway.

She stood there for a minute, gawking at him, before picking up her bottom jaw and turning around, mostly to conceal her blush. "Is there something I can do for you, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked, her temper somewhat flaring again from the memories of what had happened just a little bit ago re-surfaced.

"Don't call me that" he said in a gruff voice that made Sakura turn around to face him, one eyebrow delicatley raised in question. "Excuse me?" she asked, getting defensive as Kakashi took a step closer to her. "I said, don't call me that" he said again.

"Call you what?" she asked, although she already knew, but something inside of her wanted to hear him say it. She wasn't quite sure where this would all lead her, and her stomach lurched as he took another step closer, but oddly enough, she felt exhilerated and excited. She couldn't quite explain it, but she rolled the dice, nonetheless. _'Never look back, and never think twice' _Inner Sakura encouraged.

"Sensei. I am not your sensei anymore" Kakashi said, pulling up his mask to reveal his second eye that held the Sharingan. Sakura gasped slightly at the sight, becoming somewhat nervous, but refusing to show it or back down. She took a deep breath, the next words she spoke would change everything, either for better, or for worse.

"So then, what are you to me if not my sensei?". Kakashi's mask crinkled in what she had come to identify as a smirk, and a cocky smirk at that. She wondering if he had perhaps anticipated this question all along, because he didn't hesitate at all. In a span of seconds, Kakashi had whipped down his mask, leaned forward, and captured Sakura's lips in a tender kiss.

She gasped audibly at the sensations he sent coursing through her veins, and he took the chance to plunge his tounge into her mouth, exploring every inch he could. At first, Sakura was too shocked to respond, but Kakashi's insistant lips moving against her own roused her out of her dazed state, and she shyly began to respond to his kisses.

He groaned as Sakura's tounge found his own and they danced together for dominance, her hands coming up to his head and grabbing handfuls of his hair. A minute later they seperated, both panting heavily. He looked into her semi glazed eyes with the satisfaction of knowing that it was because of him that she had a dreamy look in her eyes, "I'm in love with you, Sakura. If you'll have me, I want the chance to be with you" he said tenderly, caressing her cheek with his hand.

Before she could stop them, a couple tears rolled down her cheeks, "Oh, Kakashi" she whispered, suddenly flinging herself into his chest and hanging onto him as if for dear life. "I love you, too" she cried into his chest, loving how he tightened his grip on her as she said those four magical words that changed her life forever.

Fast Forward One And A Half Years

"Yo! Kakashi! Sakura!" a blonde blur shouted, running full speed down the street towards them."So, so, is it time yet?!" he asked excitedly, bouncing from one foot to the next. Kakashi chuckled at the blonde, even after all these years, Naruto was still the number one hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja of Konoha.

"Iie, Naruto. One more month, at least." he said, turning to Sakura with a wide grin, patting her buldging belly affectionatley. "Awh, a whole month?" Naruto whined, pouting like a four year old, "But it's already been eight months! If they grow any bigger, Sakura's not gonna be able to move at all!"

"Are you calling me fat, Naruto?" Sakura questioned darkly, glaring daggers at Naruto who was quickly backing away in fright. "No no! Of course not Sakura!" he whimpered. "Funny thing about pregnancy, Naruto, is that it usually takes up to nine months before going into labour". Kakashi said wisely.

"And Sakura, by the way, is the average size for a pregnant women who is carrying twins." he added. "Say say! One of them is going to be named after me, right?" Naruto asked, his big blue eyes pouting. "No" Sakura and Kakashi both said at the same time.

"Awh, how come?" he whined. Sakura gave him a playful look, "Because I don't want my children growing up to be a clutzy bonehead" she chirped, smiling smugly. "Hey! I'm not a clutz!" Naruto defended. "Oh no?" Sakura countered, "Who's the one that always manages to step in dog shit all the time? Hmm?."

"Awh, come on Sakura! Aren't you ever going to let me live that down?!" Sakura chuckled, "Nope, not a chance." Kakashi chuckled at the two's playful bantering, reminded of the good ol' days of Team Seven. "Hey, Kashi-kun, let's go out for lunch." Sakura suggested, giving him a peck on the cheek and then walking down the street. "Sure, what'll it be?" he asked, walking in sync beside her, throwing a protective arm around her shouldars.

Sakura put her forefinger to her chin in thought, "Hmm. Oh, I know! I want some deep fried chocolate mint ice cream, some deep fried prawns, and some fried green tomatoes!" Kakashi sweatdropped. "Oh dear, this is going to be one long month."

The End

Japanese Dictionary:

Baka ie : Nonesense

Oyasumi Nasi: Goodnight

Hai : Yes

Iie : No

wakarimasu : I understand


End file.
